Press

Nicolas Quillé

General Manager and Head Winemaker

Nicolas was born in Lyon, France, to a family with three generations in the wine business. Nicolas holds a Master degree in Winemaking from the University of Dijon, Burgundy and a Masters in Sparkling Wine Business from the University of Reims, Champagne. Prior to coming to the United States, Nicolas worked in Burgundy and the Rhone Valley as a winemaker. Nicolas came to the United States in 1997 and worked as a winemaker in California and then in Washington State. In 2005 Nicolas earned his MBA with honors from the University of Washington. With his business degree in hand, Nicolas went to Bonny Doon Vineyard as General Manager where he supervised the restructuring of the family business involving two significant merger and acquisition transactions. After closing those transactions, Nicolas lead the Pacific Rim brand spin-off from Bonny Doon and became the General Manager and Winemaker for Pacific Rim Winery, which was later sold to the Mariani family of Banfi Vintners in 2010. Nicolas stayed on in his current position with the new ownership leading the growth of the Riesling centric Pacific Rim brand from its Portland, Oregon headquarters. The company was renamed VinMotion in 2012 to reflect its growing Northwest wine centric portfolio under the Pacific Rim, Rainstorm, Eufloria, Unparalleled, Sweet Bliss and Silver Totem brands. Nicolas is currently the Vice President of the International Riesling Foundation, a board member of the Washington winery sustainability group: Winewise, a member of the Washington State export committee and a hopeful student of the Master of Wine program.

Steven Sealock

Winemaker/Winery Manager

Steven was born in Georgia (USA) to an Air Force father and German mother. At the age of five, the family was stationed to Wiesbaden, Germany. Shortly thereafter he had his first taste of wine, as is the German custom to serve watered down wine to children on special occasions. After spending five years in Germany and a five year assignment in Kansas City, Missouri, the family finally laid down roots in Seattle, WA where Steven received his undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Washington. After nine years working in high-tech electronics he made the jump to the wine world when he started working for Associated Vintners / Columbia Winery / Corus Brands. His primary responsibility was to formalize the bottling and production processes. He learned as much as he could working with great people like David Lake, Bruce Watson and Robert Takahashi. During this time the company grew from approximately 200,000 cases to over 700,000 cases with over five brands and four locations. When the company was purchased by Constellation Brands, he stayed on with a few different responsibilities. One of those winemaking responsibilities was working with the Australian arm of the company to create and blend up 825,000 cases of Alice White. His other responsibility was as a member of the production team that implemented JD Edwards throughout the company. After Constellation, he then went to work for Precept Brands at its infancy. He helped grow the company from 15,000 cases of negotiant production to more than 300,000 cases of branded product. When the opportunity to build the new Pacific Rim Winery and grow a new company, he jumped at the chance. The winery was completed in the September 2007 and has been growing ever since.

During his free time he spends time camping with his wife, Linda, and their two dogs.